Sustaining the musical versatility of its 41st concert season, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) welcomes another year of artistic brilliance and majestic harmonies with CONCERT V: PRELUDI on January 16, 2026, 7:30 p.m., at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati City.
The PPO, under the baton of the revered Maestro Grzegorz Nowak,beautifully reinterprets the timeless works of composers Jeffrey Ching, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt in Concert V: Preludi. Spanish-Filipino singer Andion Fernandez and piano prodigy Szymon Nehring are set to take the stage with the orchestra.
A prelude to a new beginning
This January, the fifth concert of the season warmly welcomes the audience with Ching’s Fenghuang Singing. Ching, the orchestra’s first composer-in-residence, crafted the melody for New Music in Sachsen-Anhalt (2019) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
While blending motifs from East and West German hymns, Ching describes the destruction and eventual rebirth of Magdeburg and Braunschweig Cities through music. He then paints the image of the fenghuang or the phoenix bird from the Chinese ideographs in Mao Zedong’s calligraphy.
For PPO’s Concert V: Preludi, Ching’s Fenghuang Singing comes alive through the voice ofhis partner and muse, soprano Andion Fernandez.
Once a soloist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Fernandez won first prize in the Voice Category of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists Foundation, Inc. (NAMCYA) during the 1980s. She studied with National Artist for Music Fides Cuyugan Asencio and went on to graduate with honors from Berlin’s Universität der Künste.
A nostalgic journey to turn a new leaf
PPO’s Concert V: Preludi continues the festivity with Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 11, E minor. Dubbed one of Chopin’s most ambitious works, Piano Concerto mirrors the beginning of the composer’s remarkable journey towards adulthood. It conveys a poetic but melancholic character, overlooking a nostalgic scenery with its rapturous slow movement. Composed before his 20th birthday, Chopin narrates his struggles and triumphs as a musician through the masterpiece.
Liszt’s most famous symphonic poem, Les Préludes, concludes PPO’s Concert V: Preludi. Much like Chopin, Liszt immortalized a notable fragment of his life in this piece. He was swayed by his unhappily married mistress, Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, to give up performing and devote his attention to composition.
For Les Préludes, Liszt cited French poet and statesman Alphonse de Lamartine, who regarded life as a series of preludes entwined with death, in its first notes. The composition then unfolds in five sections, beginning with a hazy introduction and building up to a successful march.
Together with guest pianist Szymon Nehring, the PPO intricately performs Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 11, E minor and Liszt’s Les Préludes in Concert V: Preludi.
Nehring is the only Polish musician to win First Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv in 2017. At the age of 19, he was already a finalist at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
Later on, Nehring completed the Artist Diploma program at Yale University in New Haven, cementing his reputation as the most gifted and promising pianist of his generation in Poland.
An avenue for musical manifestations
While showcasing cultural tales and personal struggles, Concert V: Preludi creates the perfect haven for camaraderie and community through its elegant repertoire. The PPO, with its members bound by the same immense passion for the arts, solidifies its mission of bringing classical music closer to Filipinos as it ushers in the new year.
Through Concert V, the PPO also hopes to tease a deeper appreciation for the arts as it graciously welcomes another year of heartfelt music and mastery. Slated on January 16, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater, the concert takes the viewers to a night of heavenly prelude to new beginnings.
Now available at TicketWorld, tickets for PPO concerts are priced at Php3,000, Php2,500, Php2,000, and Php1,500. Be a PPO subscriber for an exclusive 20 percent discount. To subscribe to the PPO’s 41st concert season, email salesandpromotions@culturalcenter.gov.ph or call the CCP Box Office at +63931-033-0880.
